People

Motivated to study perception in action, my research focuses on odour-guided behaviour and its underlying neural mechanisms in insects.

During my MSc and PhD in the group of Prof. Amir Ayali in Tel Aviv University, I studied neural adaptions of swarm forming locusts for long-range migratory flights,
and investigated the development of a specific neuronal circuit in different contexts. In 2008, I joined the group of Prof. Philip Holmes in the department of mechanical engineering in Princeton
University as a postdoctoral researcher and studied the neural basis of legged locomotion in cockroaches. Inspired by cockroaches’ remarkable agility, we study the neural basis allowing their
stable running gaits and fast recovery times when facing perturbations.

In 2015, I had moved to Konstanz University to join the neurobiology department (AG Galizia). Since then I am working towards my research goals to understand how
perception leads to movement decisions and how motion affects perception.

PhD project: Active smelling - understanding interactions between perception and motion, in the American cockroach. Antoine had previously been working on olfactory navigation in moths. His master's degree was in Ecophysiology and Ethology and Bachelor's degree in Cellular Biology and
Organismal Physiology from the University of Strasbourg.

PhD project: The neurobiology of swarm-forming locusts. Combining neurophysiology and behavioural experiments under naturalistic
conditions, Yannick's project aims to elucidate mechanisms underlying locusts individual and group movement decisions. Yannick had joined us in August 2019, after an MSc in Bielefeld where he
studied adaptive motor control in stick insects.

Joined us from Georgia state, Jacky is studying how group contexts influence decision making in Cockroaches. For her project she monitors individual and group
responses to odour cues while, in collaboration with Inga, also look at how these cues are perceived in the cockroach's antennal lobe.

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